What Do Carbohydrates Do For the Body?

When you talk about dieting or eating healthy the one thing that people mention is carbohydrates. You may hear whether you should eat low carb diets or eat enough carbohydrates but what do carbohydrates actually do for your body. In this article will discuss what carbohydrates do for your body.

First before we can begin we must answer the question: What are carbohydrates?. Carbohydrates or carbs are one of the three major groups of nutrients that provide calories. The other nutrients are fat and protein. Carbs are made of three elements: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Each gram of carbohydrates by weight provides for calories of energy.

Besides providing energy, foods containing carbohydrate are typically packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals. Carbs fuel our muscles and brain, and supply the energy for essential body functions like breathing and heartbeat. Without enough carbs in our diet, our body has to rely on alternate, more inefficient energy pathways that ultimately leave us weak, tired and light-headed.

Carbohydrates are types of sugars. As mentioned earlier, they are the primary source of energy for our body. They can perform several functions. They are used in different cells for different purposes and play an important role in our immune system, reproduction, and much more.

So from this information above we can see the importance of having carbohydrates in our diets. If we decided to choose a low-carb diet we leave ourselves open for all sorts of immune system problems with our bodies, inefficient energy, and will ultimately be too weak, tired and lightheaded.